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Bella
|} This character belongs to Kittyluvver. Ghost-Whisperer, Guardian of Souls, the 250th Undertaker of the Necropolis beneath the SkyWing arena, Bella the SeaWing is a dragoness like no other. She is a Deathtouched animus, born with the power to see and speak with the spirits of the departed and blessed with the rarest of all abilities - the power to raise the dead from their graves. Description You might draw back at the sight of her sharp, rawboned spars of rib and wing, the ghoulish orange glow of eyes slitted catlike, the twisting stripes writ eternal as an unspoken destiny. Unearthly is she, not quite of this world and not quite of the next - a dragoness whose very appearance is ghastly as the stuff of nightmares, ghostly as the denizens of the Necropolis that she leads and serves. She is unbearably, painfully skinny, forever on the very brink of starvation, for mortal needs are hard to satiate in the depths of the Necropolis. Her face is sharp and hollow, her ribs stand stark against her hide, her flanks fall inwards instead of out. No curves, no softness, no safe haven is to be found here. Indeed, you might be afraid to touch her for fear of cutting yourself on the knife-sharp edges of bone jutting up past shoulder, haunch, and hide. And yet there is a strange artistry in Bella’s form - the sharp-glassed lines and edges of her body hewn as if from ebony and marble, already hazed with death’s coldest midnight. There is something statuesque about her, something unfinished in the rough-cut planes of her body - she is like a statue wrought of black marble, not out of place amongst the many that line the walls of the mausoleum; forgotten queens and ancient gods. Her eyes glow orange with the light of soft candlestick flames, forever flickering, bearing witness to the eternal passage of time. Her scales are the deepest blue of the darkling sky, the soft glow of her photophores like the shimmer of starlight across the blackness. Her wings and her underbelly are a lighter shade - the twilit colors of pale blue and deep gray, the death of the sun captured across living skin. Twisting, twining photophores form unusual patterns - the stripes on her legs look almost like rows upon rows of ancient script penned into her scales, flickering and blinking eerily in the dusky twilight. Her slaughtered kin, the Freshwater SeaWings, believe that a dragon's entire life is written out in their stripes. But if that is true, what kind of story does Bella's stripes tell? Skills Bella is gifted - or cursed, as one might argue - with a particularly powerful and deadly kind of animus magic. Due to the highly unusual and macabre circumstances of her birth (detailed below), her natural animus gift has corrupted into the necromantic powers that she currently possesses. She can see and converse with the spirits of the dead, and has been able to do so since birth. During her dragonet years she had trouble differentiating between the living and the dead, and would often appear to be talking to empty space. She largely keeps the company of the ghosts of the SkyWing Necropolis, and wherever she goes, spirits seem drawn to her like moths to a light. Most terrifyingly of all, she can use her animus powers to raise the bodies of the dead; an extension of an animus's power over inanimate things. Much in the same way that a natural animus can enchant stone and gold to move, Bella's brand of magic specializes in making lifeless flesh and bone move. She cannot bring the dead back to life - that is beyond the power of any animus - but she can give the power of movement, for a few minutes up to a few weeks at a time. Her power is not permanent, and lasts only as long as she can sustain the magic or until the corpse falls apart. Reanimating corpses is very taxing to her, both physically and mentally, as she is literally giving up a portion of her own life force to bring the bodies to unlife. However, she is getting better the more she practices. She finds that fresh carcasses are easier - and the SkyWing arena provides her with no shortage of those. Sometimes, in certain cases, she can reanimate a body to be possessed by an existing ghost. This is how she supports her mentor, Tenebrous - every week or so she reanimates a new carcass for Tenebrous to inhabit. In return, Tenebrous teaches her how to control and harness her powers. Instead of gradually losing her soul as she expended her animus powers, with each magical effort Bella instead loses a small bit of her physical body. Starting at the tip of her tail, her flesh has begun to wither and die, leaving nothing but a ghostly pale silhouette behind. As Bella uses her powers, she is slowly dying and turning into a ghost herself. Living in the crypts, every day Bella has to interact with the thousands of ghosts that inhabit or are passing through the SkyWing Necropolis - usually victims of the arena fights. She usually makes an effort to hear them out, and tries her best to help them pass on into the everafter. Sometimes she can help resolve their unfinished business, but a lot of the time they make demands that she just can't help with - death to Scarlet! is a common one. When venturing down into the catacombs she often carries an oil lantern with her. She doesn't need it - as a SeaWing, she can navigate in near-total darkness, guided only by her night vision and the light of her photophores. The lantern is to dispel the ghosts of the dead - thousands upon thousands of them - that congregate down in the depths of the Necropolis. Bella also knows how to perform exorcisms. Though she isn't in the habit of just getting rid of the ghosts that have become her world, sometimes she's forced to do it when confronted with a particularly malevolent one. Bella has lost her sense of smell - which is perhaps fortunate in her line of work. Though she is entirely unaware of it, she leaves a faint whiff of incense behind wherever she goes. She can only speak very garbled Aquatic, as her strange stripe configurations make it difficult for other SeaWings to understand her. Personality Bella is actually surprisingly sane. Which is remarkable, because animus magic and living in a ghost-filled crypt together aren't a great recipe for stellar mental health. Perhaps she's not entirely sane - or not sane in the way we perceive it. What kind of dragon would would willingly spend her days in a silent crypt, amongst thousands of interred bodies and thousands of ghosts? Any other dragon on Pyrrhia would be terrified. Disgusted. Driven mad with fear. But Bella doesn't see things quite the same way. The dead can't hurt her, or even touch her. Bella has received nothing but cruelty inflicted by the dragons above - they've whipped her, chained her, starved her, tormented her, sold her like an animal. Now, she prefers to retreat down into the depths of the stone mausoleums, away from the realm of the living and away from the source of her pain. The tombs, the quiet halls beneath the earth - they are the only place where she can be safe. She doesn't fear death, or the dead in the slightest. The sight of bones or bodies holds no terror for her - she has seen so many of them, and she knows they cannot hurt her. She actively prefers the company of ghosts over the company of the living. The dead are her people, the crypts, her home. All in all, Bella is actually quite a serene and cheerful young dragoness. Which is bizarre, considering her painful past and her present circumstances. It also leads to others thinking that she's downright insane - not often do you see a dragon skipping through the rows of the catacombs, swinging her lantern and saying "good morning!" to all of the friendly ghosts. But Bella is a young dragoness with an irrepressably bright spirit, who never quite developed the same inhibitions as other dragons. She's struck up friendships with a lot of the ghosts down in the Necropolis, and they're all she has. They have become all the friends and family she'll ever need. The ghosts have become her protectors, keeping most live dragons from venturing too far into the underground and finding her. In return, Bella feels a sense of responsibility for the ghosts of the Necropolis, and often finds herself filling the role of a counselor of sorts. For new ghosts who have been recently slain in the arena, she tries to make them feel welcome and help them come to terms with their deaths. She also helps - or tries to help - the ghosts find their peace, so that they can finally pass out of this world and into the next. Despite her youth and her cheerful demeanor, she is wise beyond her years. Bella is also the only dragon who has bothered to keep records of the dragons who die in the arena. Each time a corpse is brought in she takes down their name - or sometimes, when a name isn't known, a detailed description. She does this on the off chance that some day, somehow, some remaining kin would come to visit. Of course, no one ever comes. But even so, she keeps her ever-growing list of names - because those dragons do not deserve to be forgotten. History |-|Backstory= CURRENTLY UNDER CONSTRUCTION Bella (and her clutch-sister Ariadne, currently very out-of-date) are Freshwater SeaWings, belonging to a group of SeaWing dragons who had broken off from their kind in the ocean and had been living peacefully in the Diamond Spray River and its associated tributaries for many generations. However, the peace of this reclusive clan was shattered at the outbreak of the War of the Sisters. The SkyWings and the SeaWings pledged themselves on opposite sides of the war and the Freshwaters found themselves caught in between, for they were SeaWings who lived in Sky lands. And so it was that one fateful night, the SkyWings flew to war on the Freshwater SeaWing village. The Freshwater SeaWings farmed and fished, and knew nothing of battle or defense. They were no match for a battalion of highly trained, disciplined soldiers. The entire village burned, only a few SeaWings managing to escape into the water. At that time Bella and Ariadne were only new-laid eggs, and their mother was murdered defending them. Ariadne's egg was found by the SkyWings and taken away, to be sold into slavery. However, Bella's egg rolled away and was hidden beneath her dead mother's wings, and escaped the same fate. The SkyWings left, the village in smoking ruins, the last trace of life held in Bella's single egg. The fetal SeaWing matured alone, egg still clasped tight in her mother's rotting claws. By the time she hatched, her mother was no more than a skeleton with bare wings still mantled protectively over her. And by that time, the little animus dragonet was beyond saving. Born into carnage, growing in an egg surrounded by so much death, Bella's animus magic had corrupted, completely and irreparably. Instead of holding power over objects like a natural animus, she was now Deathtouched - with power over the dead. The infant Bella, quite unable to fend for herself, wandered the ruins of the village and the surrounding area for months, testing the limits of her Deathtouched endurance and nearly starving to death. Fortunately - or perhaps unfortunately - for her, she was found by a SkyWing patrol. Instead of killing the young dragonet on the spot, they brought her to the palace, to be sent into the arena when she was old enough to put up a fight. Bella spent the first few years of her life growing up as a slave in the Palace of Sky, mistrusted by even her fellow condemned. Another Freshwater SeaWing, who had been captured years before, tried to strangle her, recognizing the curse written in her odd stripes. Bella only barely managed to claw her way free. She survived her first few years, and slowly, inevitably, the ghosts began to come to her at nights, drawn by her then-dormant power. It started as one or two at a time, but eventually dozens began to congregate by moonlight, whispering, frightening the guards and other slaves out of their wits. But somehow, Bella never feared the ghosts. They were like her. They welcomed her. One night, the ghost of Tenebrous came, possessing a guard and manipulating him into freeing her. Seizing her chance, Bella ran. She ran to the only place she could, following her instincts, guided by the ghosts to the only place where she knew the guards would not dare follow her. Down into the depths of the earth below the arena, into the crypts, into the Necropolis. She vanished into the darkness, and the SkyWings did not chase her further. Since then, Bella has been residing in the depths of the Necropolis under the arena, interring the bodies of the arena's victims, tending to her family of ghosts, and following Tenebrous's tutelage. She ventures out only sporadically, to steal food from the kitchens and such. She and the SkyWings have come to something of an unspoken agreement - she deals with the bodies, and they leave her alone. As the years pass, she's become a bit of a myth to the SkyWings and the arena prisoners. They call her Ghost Whisperer. |-|Main Storyline= WIP Relationships |-|Among the Dead= Tenebrous: '''Tenebrous the NightWing, though only a ghost now, is currently mentoring Bella and teaching her how to fully harness her magic. He was also a Deathtouched animus from centuries ago, and Bella reanimates new bodies for him to inhabit. He is also one of the most powerful ghosts currently in existance, and is even capable of exerting some influence over the mortal world. Although Bella is grateful to him for securing her freedom, sometimes even she questions Tenebrous's motives. He is pushing her hard to raise more bodies and gather more ghosts. What does he truly want from her? '''Gill: '''Gill the SeaWing is something of a father figure to Bella. He was one of the first ghosts to visit her while she was a Palace slave, and has since become one of her most trusted friends. Wise and benevolent, Gill is something of a leader amongst the other spirits, and Bella often goes to him for his advice and guidance. She often urges him to seek out Tsunami and Coral and make his peace with them, so he can move on - but Gill has not done so yet. Secretly, Bella is glad. She would miss him dearly if he left. '''Orca: Although Orca was not killed in the arena (she prefers to haunt the SeaWing Palaces), she is an occasional visitor to the Necropolis. She likes to check up on how Bella is doing in her training, and sometimes offers pointers - enchanting dead bodies isn't so different from enchanting statues. Bella doesn't really know what to make of Orca, and doesn't fully trust her either - she is too dark, too powerful, with too much hatred in her soul. Ashen: ' The shade of Peril's fireless brother, the dragonet murdered at his mother's paws, Ashen is the ghost of a SkyWing dragonet. Now he too wanders the Necropolis below the palace, only venturing above to visit his sister every once in a while. Ashen's ghostly appearance has grown a little bit older since his death, and he now takes the form of a young adolescent SkyWing around the same age as Peril and slightly older than Bella. He is one of Bella's primary friends. '''Fallen: ' Fallen is another young ghost dragonet, a young SkyWing female. She was meant to be the original SkyWing dragonet of destiny, but her egg was smashed by Burn. Now she has also wandered into the underground tunnels. Fallen is now also a young adolescent dragonet of the same age as the Dragonets of Destiny, about as old as Bella. She is also one of Bella's primary friends. |-|Fellow Deathtouched= '''Azrael: character coming soon! Orpheus: character coming soon! Lazarus: character coming soon! Lilith: character coming soon! |-|Other= Nightingale: '''Princess Nightingale is one of the few living SkyWings who has gleaned the truth of Bella's existance. Although like most of her tribe Nightingale hasn't dared to actively seek Bella out, the princess makes Bella uneasy. It seems like Nightingale would be just the kind of dragon to turn Bella into some of kind of secret weapon and force her to raise an army - if Tenebrous doesn't try first. '''Faithless: '''Faithless the venom-born SandWing champion alone has sent more corpses into the catacombs than any other dragon. Bella has only heard of her, having never met her in person. She doesn't wish to either - and yet she knows of the SandWing's inner torment. Bella knows that Faithless will not last - one of these days she is going to end up as another ghost down in the Necropolis. '''Ariadne: Bella has only recently found out that she has a sister, hearing the news from the visiting ghost of one of Ariadne's unwitting victims. Bella has since become obsessed with the idea of finding her - annoying Tenebrous, who wishes her to focus on her training. Ariadne is also Deathtouched, but to a much lesser extent than Bella, and does not know of Bella's existence. Trivia *Bella finds it extremely difficult to Disembody herself like a normal Deathtouched dragon, due to the rooting effect of her animus powers. She has only managed it about three times in her entire life so far. *There's not much flying to be done when you're underground all the time, and compared to normal dragons Bella has very weak wings. Out in the open air, she would find it very taxing to fly for more than a few minutes. *She doesn't need to sleep as much, but when she does, she snores heavily. Heavily enough to "wake the dead," as the joke among the ghosts goes. It's gotten to the point that they make Bella sleep in a cave pool. Gills can't snore... can't they? Gallery Bellasimple.jpg Bella.Foxy.png Chibella.jpg Bellahuuummmaaannnimage.jpg Bellahooman.png Bellacape Luna.jpg Kittysocsdraw.jpg|Kitty's OCs draw themselves Screen Shot 2015-12-19 at 7.08.52 PM.png __NOEDITSECTION__ Feedback: Do you like this OC? Yes! She's okay. No Feedback: Do you like the coding on this page? Yes! It's alright. No If you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them in the comments below! Category:SeaWings Category:Animus Category:Females Category:Dragonets Category:Content (Kittyluvver) Category:Characters